Saturday, February 17, 2024

Start of the reading year 2024

 Good morning from Finland! 

The reading year has started pretty well. I have listened to so many audiobooks. I am content, even though most of them are rereads/re-listens. I have managed to dnf a book but then I might give it another chance later. It is "A house of special purpose" by John Boyne. I got so upset when the author made up a city/town in Finland that I stopped very abruptly reading it and almost threw it away in disgust... But I think I will give it another shot.

In case someone wants to be my friend on goodreads, here is my profile:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9024548-cindarella

I have a lot of books on my TBR but right now I am rereading too much.

My goal is to read more with my eyeballs, and especially new to me books. Wish me luck!

I have listened to 10 books so far this year and dnfd the book by John Boyne and plan to pick it up again soon... I started two very intimidating books yesterday:

Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina and War and peace.

Those are two very chunky books :)

"I love big books and I cannot lie!" is my motto after all :D

More later! 

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

The Helmet reading challenge 2024

The Helmet Reading Challenge 2024

1. A book with a proper noun in the title  

Barbie and Ruth by Robin Gerber (audiobook)

2. A book in which someone uses magic  

Leigjh Bardugo: Hell bent

3. A book that has won the Booker or Pulitzer prize  

Esi Edugyan: Washington Black ( the man booker prize 2018)

4. A book that features a president  

Suzanne Collins: the ballad of songbirds and snakes (president Snow)

5. A book whose author’s initials are not part of your name  

Mina Hansson: My little pony

6. A book set in the 1920s  

ML Stedman: the light between oceans

7. A book in which someone falls in love  

Louisa May Alcott: Little women

8. A book with a family member in the title  

 Lucinda Riley: the seven sisters

9. A book in which someone runs away  

Stephenie Meyer: Midnight sun

10. The tenth book that you read this year  

 Christopher Paolini: Eragon

11. A book with one of the four elements (air, water, earth or fire) on the cover or in the title  

Garth Risk Hallberg: City on fire

12. A children's poetry book  

---

13. A book set in a closed or enclosed space  

Emma Donoghue: Room

14. A book in which someone engages in a hobby  

Massimiliano Capella: Barbie the icon

15. A book with at least three authors or illustrators 

several: Nouse luontoni

16. A book with photographs  

Ransom Riggs: Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children

17. A book with an annoying character  

Stephenie Meyer: Midnight sun

18. A book with jewellery on the cover or in the title  

Meg Cabot: The princess diaries

19. A book in which Finland is mentioned  

John Boyne: The house of special purpose

20. A book published by a small publishing company  

Taru Luojola: Myöhempien aikojen liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia

21. A book that has been adapted into a TV series  

Robert Jordan: The eye of the world

22. A book recommended by an author  

 Jane Austen: Persuasion

23. A Finnish detective novel or thriller  

 Anni Polva: Tiina

24. A book set in a capital city  

Roslund och Hellström: Flickan under gatan (Stockholm)

25. A book involving the celebration of a holiday (such as Christmas or Midsummer)  

John Grisham: Skipping Christmas

26. A book with the word ‘book’ in the title  

Joseph Smith JR. : The book of mormon

27. A book about rebuilding  

 Wilhelm Moberg: Utvandrarna

28. A book by an author from a Mediterranean country  

 Orhan Pamuk: Den vita borgen (translated by Kemal Yamanlar and Anne-MarieÖzkök

29. A book in which someone tells lies  

Scott Lynch: the lies of Locke Lamora

30. A book without named or numbered chapters  

Ken Kesey: One flew over the cuckoo's nest

31. A book that features a disabled person  

Jojo Moyes: Me before you

32. A book originally written in a language that has no more than 10 million speakers

Selma Lagerlöf: Jerusalem  

33. A book in which someone moves to the countryside  

CS Lewis: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe

34. A book with an order or suggestion in the title  

come follow me -handbook (Sunday school, the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints)

35. A book in which someone spends time in nature  

LM Montgomery: Anne på Grönkulla

36. A book written by an immigrant  

Nicola Yoon: The sun is also a star

37. A book that elicits strong emotions  

Kim Östman: Mormonit

38. A book with a hand or hands on the cover or in the title  

Stephenie Meyer: Twilight

39. A book that features a bisexual or pansexual person  

Samantha Shannon: the priory of the orange tree & a day of fallen night

40. A book in which the weather is very cold or hot  

Annie Proulx: The shipping news

41. A book in which a child is born  

Kim Edwards: The memory keeper's daughter

42. A book with a subtitle  

Johanna Huhtamäki ja Vappu Pimiä: Valon antajat: Kiitä unelmasi todeksi

43. A book that does not have a main character  

Johanna Huhtamäki ja Vappu Pimiä: Valon antajat: tehtäväkirja

44. A non-fiction book written by a woman  

Johanna Huhtamäki: Pakkopositiivisuudesta tasapainoon

45. A book in which people play games  

Ernest Cline: Ready player one 

46. A book with a predominantly black cover or a title with the word ‘black’ in it  

Stephenie Meyer: New Moon

47.-48. Two books translated by the same translator  

Christopher Paolini: Den äldste; Brisingr översatta av Lottie Eriksson

49. A book published in 2024  

???

50. A book recommended by a library employee

Jane Austen: Emma

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Good afternoon from my library! :)

 Good afternoon from my "office"-líbrary :)

The reading slump of the DECADE (2020's) has been continuing into 2024...

It started in February 2023, with my brain not being happy about concentrating on reading. I couldn't concentrate a lot. Then, I also had problems during the whole year which book to read and where to read plus which position. My back has been worse and my legs are hurting a lot and also my hips. SO. Imagine trying to choose the book, choose the place to read and choose to find which way you sit so the back doesn't get worse. I know, those shouldn't be problems. But yet, here I am, finding weird problems. :D 

This year one evening I listened to the entire (short) book by Jean-Dominique Bauby: The diving-bell and the butterfly. I know it almost by heart and I listen or read it almost always every year nowadays. It is SO good, sad and touching. Makes you think. Or: "Do a think" as I sometimes say/think and obviously also write, as I just did HAHHHAH! :D Excuse me, I am in a humorous mood... Yeah. Sunlight can do that. (The sun is shining here today...)

I am so happy with my ONE book read in 2024-acheivment so far hahhah. My goal is 84+ books in 2024. My goal is on Goodreads:

 goal for 2024

I love reading challenges as many of you know, if you like this blog. Even if you don't, I bet I have mentioned it plenty of times hahhah. I never ever manage to complete my more elaborate reading challemnges and it makes me sad, but each year at the end I realise, I couldn't have stuck to a certain TBR or such. So I forgive myself each year and try or change my tactics or something. :D This year will be no different, I think. I will just try to avoid many and long reading slumps. Wish me luck! :)

Here is another lovely challenge:

Helmet-reading challenge 2024 

IF I decided to take it on, I will post my TBR here :) 

I have also last year watched a lot more youtube than earlier and listened more to the radio. I also knitted a lot. Three scarves (the last one is almost done soon). I should have listened to more audibooks while knitting, maybe I should try that more this year... I love music, it is very important to me. I think I need new and better lists on Spotify to follow and listen to while reading. I can make a few new ones myself too. 

I have been out in the world a lot more last year. My new friends pulled me out of my coma... (Not a real coma, just my feelings of depression and anxiety etc). Music, youtube and knitting also pull me out of my mental slump of anxiety.

Good luck with all of your reading years! :)

More later.

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

Hi! :) reading slumps sucks...

 




Hello hello! :)

I have been in a severe reading slump since February... I visited my parents in July and read a few really short books and DNF'd a few too... I have read the first book, the pink one in Finnish, three times this year as an audiobook, I like it so much! And I am currently reading many books but focusing a lot on "the girl who played with fire" by Stieg Larsson (reading it in my native tongue of Swedish) and "one day" by David Nicholls. :) they are pretty okay.

I am trying to catch up on my Reading challenge on goodreads. I have started marking DNF's as read because I need revenge because they wasted my time... lol. I know, I am a bit weird. :D I just can't with some books and then get angry at them for being bad. 

here is my goodreads challenge:

 https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/39099137

I am currently sprinting with Jordaline from Canada, a booktuber on youtube... Here is a link to her awesome channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@JordalineReads 

Have a great "time of the day"! :) lol

Monday, January 9, 2023

The two first books of 2023 :)

 Hello! 

I have had a slow reading start to the year but today I finished two books:

TJ Klune: Under the whispering door (audiobook, my third time listening to it as an audiobook on Scribd)

and


 Raisa Omaheimo: Ratkaisuja läskeille. Audiobook on Bookbeat.

 *Under the whispering door* by TJ Klune is a re-listen and one of my favorite soft fantasy books. I listened to it twice in 2021. This book is like a warm hug. It's about grief, death and sorrow. It's one of the few books that has made me shed tears in the recent years. There are some triggering parts, in which case you might want to google some spoiler free reviews, just in case. Wallace is dead and he is brought to a Tea shop by a reaper and is waiting to cross over to the other side. Wallace was a bit of a butthole in life and in death he becomes a little or a lot better. The nice people who are at the Tea shop help him to learn and grow. This book is very heart-warming and cozy. If you are open minded and up to reading wonderful stories about tragic and beautiful life stories, I really recommend this book. 4/5 stars. Not five stars because it was a little dragging in some parts in my humble opinion.

*Ratkaisuja läskeille* by Raisa Omaheimo. Freely translated: *Solutions for fatsos*. This book was such a good one. I would want all of my friends who have ever been on a diet or told someone else to go on a diet, or has had any problems with being overweight etc. to read this amazing book! I saw red and got really wound up by this book. It made me sad, mad and proud at the same time. It is a book with kind of experiences and facts and opinions that I have been thinking for years and some I just realizerd I should have been thinking and voicing. It is not a problem to be fat. It's not something wrong with you if you are overweight. If you have a problem with fat people, it's your problem, not the fat person's problem. You need to rethink dieting, weight-loss, BMI and healthy and unhealthy views of your own weight. I think this book is simply brilliant. After I read it, (aka listened to it in one sitting), I wrote a little note in Finnish to myself that said: I am a fat activitst. I do not support fatphobia or fat hate. This was such a powerful experience for me. I cried a little. This lady, the author, really knew all the struggles. I will recommend it to EVERYONE. 5/5 stars

 

That's it for the first two books :) My goal is to read 88 books in 2023 and to write a review of each and every one! Wish me luck! :)


 

 
 
 




Monday, December 12, 2022

New books :)

 Good morning everyone! 

How's it going? I'm doing really well :)

I have read 82 books this year so far and my goal I have lowered to 88 books for this year on goodreads. I am one book behind schedule... But I think I will make it. Just six more books to go. This year I have re-read and re-listened to some familiar books, my comfort reads. Next year my goal is to re-read some series only ONE TIME. It will be tough but it is okay. I have also decided to listen and read to most my books that I have as audiobooks and a physical copy of, also a few books I don't have a audiobook of.

I had my bookshop-card almost full this fall and bought the last book that was required and got one FREE! I love this system they have lol. I bought Daisy Jones and the six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Ninth house by Leigh Bardugo. I have Daisy Jones also on audible, so that's going on my list for 2023. I am trying to read the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising before I dive into Daisy Jones and the six.

I started Evelyn Hugo but got stuck as usual... I will try to jump back into it asap.

I started Bird box by Josh Malerman and it's good. I have it  both as a paperback and on audible :) I love reading & listening, it is like a movie in my head. It's really nice. I love audiobooks... I have a few that I don't own as physical copies but sometimes I just enjoy listening. 

More later!

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Reading challenge update and more! :)

 Dear followers,

Whenever I fall into a reading slump, I have a few audio books that are short and familiar that I love to re-listen to... I love audio books and it is a lot easier to get out of the slump by listening to something familiar. Now that I am almost caught up on my reading goal of 2022 I can start reading more with my eyeballs and even bigger books. I love big books and I cannot lie lol.

I feel like I don't have to read all the REALLY chunky ones right this moment but I can start them and read a few that are longer than some of the audio books I have been listening to. I must say, I feel like I am re-reading far too much lol. I will try to challenge myself more next year. I can't stick to a TBR, I am a mood reader :D 

Some of the books that I love re-listening to are the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling and the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer. They are my comfort listens :) But enough is enough lol. I will try to re-listen to them a little less frequently... I do have over 100-200 unread books at home. I used to hoard a lot of books, I was afraid of running out of things to read :D 

I can start planning a preliminary TBR but it will probably change many times next year lol.

Some of the books I want to read or re-read next year are (also some that I have started already):

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jerusalem by Selma Lagerlöf

Putkinotko by Joel Lehtonen

Sinuhe egyptiläinen by Mika Waltari

Utvandrarna by Wilhelm Moberg

those are some of the classics on my TBR. I have read Putkinotko and Sinuhe earlier...

I am a trilingual person so I love reading in three languages: Swedish, Finnish and English :)

I also want to re-read some of my all-time favorite books... Which include:

The book thief by Markus Zuzak

The thirrteenth tale by Diane Setterfield

The Ruby Slippers by Keir Alexander

The weight of silence by Heather Gudenkauf

 Philomena by Martin Sixsmith 

More later! :)